How to tell how strictly an agency filters

From the outside, agencies look alike. Similar promises, similar phrasing, equally friendly home pages. The difference sits in one place that is rarely visible: how many applications get refused.

That isn't a side issue. It is the only point where it is decided whether a selection is curated or merely collected. And you can read it even when nobody writes it down.

Six signals

1. How many profiles are there

A large catalogue isn't a quality marker; usually it's the opposite. Anyone carrying hundreds of profiles either has enormous inflow or has barely filtered. Two dozen vetted profiles is a plausible figure for a country the size of Switzerland; several hundred is not.

Do the quick arithmetic: how many men in your region would have had to apply for that number to survive strict vetting? If the answer sounds unrealistic, it usually is.

2. Is an acceptance rate stated

Very few state one. If it is stated, check whether it is told in a verifiable way: what is checked, in what order, and what leads to rejection. A number with no described process is decoration.

3. What the profiles contain

This is the most reliable signal of all. Do the profiles describe behaviour or looks? Do they say how someone communicates, how he handles boundaries, which languages he genuinely commands? Or are they adjectives that fit anyone?

Anyone who really filters has something concrete to write. Anyone who doesn't has only categories.

4. How the first contact runs

Does your enquiry land with the companion directly, or with the agency first? The difference is large. Direct contact is more convenient and faster, but it means nobody stands between you and an arbitrary listing.

An agency that handles the first contact itself takes on work and responsibility. That costs it time, which is exactly why not everyone does it.

5. Is your enquiry reviewed before it goes on

Just ask directly. The answer tells you more than any home page. If every enquiry is forwarded automatically, the agency is a directory, not a filter — and the protection runs both ways: the companion then receives every message too.

6. Are you told when nothing fits

This is the most honest test. An agency that always has a suggestion either has infinite profiles or suggests anything. A „for your date and requirements I don't have anyone suitable right now“ is a quality signal, not a shortcoming.

What weak filtering costs you

Not money, but time and safety. You sift what should already have been sifted. You only notice in the contact that someone is unreliable. And in the worse case you notice on the evening itself, somewhere you feel uncomfortable and don't simply want to get up and leave.

Filtering isn't a luxury. It is the actual value an agency provides.

How to test it in a single message

Write an enquiry with a deliberately difficult requirement. For example a tight date combined with a language that isn't available everywhere. Three answers are possible.

„No problem, we have someone.“ With a tight requirement that is unlikely. Be careful.

Questions back. Good sign. Something is genuinely being matched.

„That will be tight, here is the alternative.“ Best sign. Someone is being honest with you about the arithmetic.

How we handle it

Fewer than five percent of applications are accepted. The catalogue currently holds 25 vetted profiles, not several hundred. Every enquiry is read by us before it goes further, and if nobody fits your date we say so rather than proposing a substitute.

What the vetting looks like in detail is on about us. The full process on how it works, and the profiles themselves in the catalogue.